Worry over rail staff hit by Jarvis failure

The Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) said they had been given personal assurances last week by Transport Secretary Lord Adonis that the 1,200 Jarvis workers would be given jobs with Babcock Rail, another maintenance contractor, within days.

The unions claimed last night that Babcock Rail had now said it was only being re-allocated work that would save 300 jobs at most on the London North East renewals contract sometime next month.

Many of the redundancies affected staff in York, Doncaster, and Leeds.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "I have asked the Secretary of State for an urgent re-convened meeting to take all necessary steps to ensure that justice is done and all Jarvis workers are immediately transferred to directly-employed contracts under their old terms and conditions.

"Anything less is a betrayal of these workers who have had their wages and pension stolen from them."

TSSA leader Gerry Doherty said: "Network Rail has a moral obligation to 1,200 Jarvis workers to tell them quickly where this work is going and how many of them can look forward to being re-employed on their old terms and conditions.

"It was their decision to cut back on maintenance work by one third which effectively drove Jarvis out of business in the first place."

He added: "It is beyond my understanding how a taxpayer-funded firm can put 2,500 key workers on the dole during the worst recession in our lifetime."

A Network Rail spokesman said it was continuing to work closely with the administrators. "The allocation of contracts to our suppliers follows strict guidance in order to deliver best value for money. Each bidder is treated equally. There is no compromise on safety."